block cleaning

OK i have a short block that came form a 90 Chevy pick up. money slowed thing down so not doing a rebuild just a top end set up. the bottom end is in good shape however there was a **** load of sludge in this engine. I hooked the hose to the hot water heater and the pressure washer and got it pretty good. I was thinking of poring couple of gallons of diesel into the lifter valley let it run down to the pan then take my drill to the oil pump and try to flush the oiling system out. will this work are am i wasting my time?

Skeeter


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I may have misunderstood you.....I sure hope so, but are you talking about pouring the diesel then pumping all the crap through your oil pump, crankshaft, rod, main and cam bearings??? Then just draining the pan, buttoning it back up and running it that way?

if it has that much sludge I would tear it down and have block hot tanked
then in the least hone cylinders and buy a rebuild kit and have new cam bearings installed.
(its the right thing to do)

Man,please don't do that.

These engines are famous for the amount of sludge build up mostly from the PCV valve, it stops up first, then the sludge is pretty much free to do what it likes. You can run almost any kind of cleaner you want through the engine it won`t get it all out. The only thing that does is the jet hot cleaning a machine shop does. These engines cake up with sludge due to the oil getting too hot especially in the lifter valley. If you want this engine to be clean then strip it down and do a rebuild. Check the the TBI body as the PCV port as well as others are all plugged with trash. The 4.3 TBI engine in my 92 chevy was like this. It had 270,000 miles on it, I ran sea foam through it countless times and the heads still wouldn`t come clean from the sludge.

thanks for the info guys. i know a proper rebuild is in order but don't wont to put anymore money in it. it is already 60 over and 2 bolt. so I'm just going to slap a cheep cam in it, that i have and intake and Heads that i can swap to my next build at a latter time. I wasn't going to run the diesel then slap it together and go i was going to pump oil after the Mack, to flus the diesel out. however if ya ll think it a wast i guess will just let it go. hopefully this engine will be in use less than a year.

Skeeter

You can do things low buck and still get it clean..

Get it up on an engine stand / hoist, or make one to hold the engine.

Pull the valve covers. Pull the oil pan and clean as much as you can from there. Then bolts (loosely don't sweat the gaskets) the valve covers and oil pan back on.

Now go get 5 gallons of kerosene.

Pour a gallon of kersone in, slowly, with the oil drain bolt out, and flush it. Keep doing it until it comes out clean.

Pull the intakes, clean the intake inside and out, clean the valley. (Shop vac is VERY helpful).

i have it down to a short block now. i took the pressure washer to it. use hot water from the hot water heater. the block itself is fairly clean was just thinking i would try and clean the oil passages out.

Skeeter

I've heard the original easy-off oven cleaner has a mean bite on grease.

also a good way to ruin cam and rod bearings

Just don't run it down to the local car wash and try to clean it. I have a friend who owns a couple of local car wash's. His pet peeves are load music (rap), 4 wheel drive mudders, and cleaning engine blocks. One Saturday morning when I was down at his shop working on my 34 he was trying to clean up a wash stall that someone had obviously tried to clean a sludged up engine in. The walls of the stall were splattered with sludge that smelled like Havoline motor oil, it was a huge mess, and he was very agitated .

Vince

There will be crud lurking in all passages, nooks and crannies. Get a set of bore brushes and go to work if you want to do it right. You don't need to spend a ton of money, you just need to remove all threaded plugs and clean it smartly...
http://store.summitracing.com/partd...15&autoview=sku

thankfully i have my own pressure washer. electric and gas so I'm covered. I have seen signs at the car washes here that say not engine blocks. i never thought about the mess of the grease i always thought it was the environmental impact.

Skeeter

You probably have loosened up a boatload of crud that's gonna cause you more trouble now that it's found its way to other parts of the engine. I hot-water pressure-washed one and had crap flying all over the place. No telling how much got between your pistons & cylinders in the ring area, and absolutely no good can come from this. I'd go ahead and redo the whole short block.